Here are some casting bites for the fresh New Year, courtesy of Variety:

Just over a handful of years since he played the crucial role of the "Terrified Sailor" in Pearl Harbor, and a few less since he was "Bob in 70's Sex-Ed Film" in The Girl Next Door, Nicholas Downs has nabbed a lead role in an upcoming drama called Prep School. This is a follow-up to Downs' and filmmaker Jerome E. Scott's last film, Anderson's Cross. According to Times Colonist, Scott described it as a film like "Dead Poet's Society meets Primal Fear." That's an interesting combination.. Anyway, the paper went on to say that the film follows a smart prep student who befriends the school's outcast, gets in trouble with a dean who has a dark secret, and struggles with the pressures of privilege and conformity.

Colleen Crabtree, on the other hand, has a much goofier cinematic score. It appears that she just co-starred in the recently-wrapped Opposite Day, which stars none other than ol' comedic names like Pauly Shore and French Stewart. It's a family film, but there's no word on what it's about yet. However, considering the mass amount of children on IMDb's cast list, could it be some sort of school comedy with an opposite theme? Who knows! We should find out some time later this year.

Michelle Stafford, who has spent the last seven years playing Phyllis Summers Abbott on The Young and the Restless, has grabbed the lead in a new indie project called 3 Days Gone. She'll play a detective in a rather interesting little thriller. The IMDb plot outline says: "Lucas Snow was buried alive and has lost 3 days of his life. His best friend is murdered and the two top crime bosses are hunting him down as well as the police. Will he find out who set him up?" The film will hit theaters this May.

Finally, T.J. Thyne, otherwise known as Dr. Jack Hodgins from Bones, has nabbed himself roles in two new films. First there is Jada Pinkett Smith's The Human Contract, which Erik first blogged about here, and secondly, there's The Last Full Measure, which stars Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman. The latter is about a bureaucrat who has to decide whether a fallen hero should be given the nation's highest award after 40 years. As if Bruce and Morgan weren't enough to challenge Thyne, there's also John Cusack, Robert Duvall, Laurence Fishburne, and Andy Garcia.